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.. for soon, the yoke of government oppression will be lifted from you:

The powerful Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle (were) used in the 1989 Montreal massacre and this summer’s Norway bloodbath. Sniper rifles that can pierce light armour from a distance of up to 1.5 kilometres. Or one that can drop a target two kilometres away. They are all weapons that will soon be declassified under the Conservatives’ bill to kill the long-gun registry and freed from binding controls that now see them listed with the RCMP-run database…Restricted or prohibited firearms such automatic assault rifles, sawed-off shotguns or handguns are not affected by the bill and would remain under […]

In a Conservative majority Parliament, it will be the provinces that will at times have to oppose the Conservative right-wing agenda, and Quebec is doing so with the long-gun registry:

Quebec and Ottawa are on a collision course over the scrapping of the long-gun registry, with the province refusing to destroy data that the federal government wants to eliminate as part of its bid to scrap the controversial legislation. Ottawa claims that the data is under federal control, but Quebec says it will not shred the information, which the provincial police force has collected over the years under current legal provisions. And the province says it needs additional data and […]

The Conservatives have decided to go even further then they previously stated in going after the destruction of the long-gun registry – now, not only will they kill it, they want to destroy all of the database of long guns collected, in order to try and prevent a future federal government from resurrecting it, or a provincial government from doing its own.

Is this surprising? Nope. The fate of the long gun registry was sealed when the Conservatives got their majority, and since they’ve gotten their majority, they’ve tended to use it to taunt their political opponents. Part of this is no doubt intended to mollify their core constituency rural […]

In case you didn’t know already, Bill C-391 – the so-called “private member’s bill” (and I say that with as much sarcasm as I can muster on typed words) which was going to kill the long-gun registry, was itself killed in a 153-151 vote tonight in the House of Commons. A Liberal motion by Mark Holland was successful in getting enough votes to not allow it to proceed – a major victory for those of us (such as the police) who believe that the long gun registry is a valuable tool to have in the fight against gun crimes.

I asked last week whether urban and Quebec Conservative MP’s were really following their constituents wishes if this was a “true” free vote on a supposed “private members bill” to kill the gun registry. After all, if it’s a private members bill, it should be a free vote, according to the Conservatives, and it should reflect the wishes of your constituents. So, if that’s the case, what about these aforementioned MP’s in those ridings? Are they really reflecting their constituents wishes, or are they getting privately “whipped” behind the scenes, as Liberal MP Glen Pearson has said several Conservative MP’s have privately told him?

Don Martin believes that if the NDP’s leader Jack Layton is correct, and he has swayed enough enough of the rural NDP MP’s to defeat the “private members bill” designed to kill the long-gun registry, the Cons have been handed an issue to win themselves a majority government. He says so right here.

This is where I’m supposed to start quaking and saying and acting like this, right?

Hardly. Why am I not shaking in my boots? The Cons have just as much to lose in Quebec and urban Ontario and urban BC in seats for voting to kill the long-gun registry as they might pick up in […]

The National Rifle Association, a powerful lobbying group in the United States that advocates fewer gun controls, has been actively involved in trying to abolish Canada’s long-gun registry for more than a decade, CBC News has learned. Documents and correspondence obtained by the CBC show the NRA has provided logistical and tactical support to organizations such as the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action (CILA), established in 1998 to lobby Ottawa to shut down the registry.

Meanwhile, we’ve discovered the Conservative Party of Canada is now running or about to run giant billboard ads in rural opposition party ridings designed to try and […]

I saw a pretty good thread in this Macleans article asking what these MP’s were voting against the registry for if this was indeed a “free” vote on a supposed “private members bill” that is supposedly allowing them to represent their constituents wishes:

Patchouli: Notice how nobody here comments about any Cons who might not be representing their constituents who may not want the registry dismantled. Interesting that the tendency is to believe only Liberals or NDP are not fulfilling constituent wishes. Why aren’t Con MPs expected to represent constituents over PM?

Mike:…The CPC ran on a platform of allowing more free votes, back when they were in opposition. […]

Just a little follow up on yesterday’s Nanos poll: While the Conservatives obviously are getting nailed in the polls over the cumulative affects of their various actions, the poll sends a warning to the NDP that they too are suffering the affects of a bad decision – namely, Jack Layton’s decision not to whip his caucus over the gun registry vote and ensure it survives:

..But the NDP is also having a difficult time. The poll suggests that because of divisions within their caucus over the long-gun registry issue, support has fallen from 21 per cent to 16 per cent…New Democrats will be able to vote independently on the bill, […]

You might have seen Jack Layton’s press conference yesterday, where he hemmed and hawed on what his party was going to do on the upcoming gun registry vote – or more accurately, how they would vote on the Liberal motion to kill Bill C-391, and if that failed to pass, the actual vote to pass C-391, which kills the long-gun registry (or at least, would then pass it in the House and have it move to the Senate, but chances are it would pass there). It was probably the worst press conference I’ve ever seen Jack hold. The media didn’t buy what Jack was trying to sell them for talking […]